Top die, hopes die, dreams die. Ahead of Cloud9’s World Championship Quarter Final match against Korea’s Samsung Galaxy, Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong was framed as the hope of NA, the one player who could carry the region’s hopes into the semi-finals. Famous for his “top die” meme, C9’s Korean import faced off against compatriot Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin in the top lane. The result of their head to head wasn’t pretty…

Both Impact and CuVee progressed to the knock-out phases having recorded some stellar performances for their respective teams in the tournament groups, instrumental in their sides victories. Heading into the 2016 League of Legends World Championship Quarter Final, it was extremely difficult to separate the two Korean top laners in terms of individual skill – the same certainly can’t be said now.

Source: Riot Games Flickr

Throughout the majority of the NA LCS split, Impact had been a solid foundation upon which Cloud9 could build out their team compositions, focusing primarily on beefy tank champions to initiate fights. As Worlds 2016 approached, Impact’s role shifted towards a ‘hard-carry’ top laner – birthing his “top die” meme as countless NA LCS top laners were blown away by the former World Champion. His frequent picks of Rumble and Kennen had proved effective in the group stages.

Unfortunately for Cloud9, Samsung Galaxy’s CuVee’s has been playing top lane mages like Kennen and Ekko pretty much all season long and has looked incredibly strong in the opening matches. CuVee outclassed nearly every top laner he faced within Group D, his unwavering thirst for aggression constantly kept his lane opponent on edge.

Source: Riot Games Flickr

Cloud9’s glaring weakness heading into their match with SSG was always going to be their dependance on Impact to take care of himself in top lane and carry the roster to glory, with every other lane seemingly set to struggle. Once it became apparent that Impact was never going to be in a position to lead C9 to victory, there was no plan B, just a feeding frenzy:

Impact was outclassed by CuVee – teleport cancels, frequent solo kills – it was hard for NA fans to watch as Samsung Galaxy’s top laner rightfully collected the MVP award after a rapid 3-0 clean sweep.

The “top die” meme will now have to take on an entirely new meaning. Impact was sat down and taught a painful lesson on how to carry from the top lane by Samsung Galaxy’s, Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin.